Chris Cairns Foundation

12 July 2010

KiwiRail calls for patience as vandalism threatens safety at railway crossings in Christchurch

KiwiRail is calling for patience following a recent spate of vandalism which is affecting level crossings in Christchurch, and putting the safety of road and rail users at risk.

There have been up to 18 incidents of vandalism in the last two months, affecting level crossings in the Papanui area in particular.

KiwiRail Network Southern Regional Manager Todd Moyle said the vandalism was causing significant disruption to road users and neighbours with warning barrier arms and bells operating for an hour or more at a time, often at night.

When a level crossing is damaged the warning systems are designed to ‘fail to safe’ to prevent the risk of a collision, meaning barrier arms will come down and stay down until the fault is resolved.

“These incidents are becoming incredibly frustrating for our staff, for road users and for people living near by,” Mr Moyle said.

“We’re working with Police and doing our best to find whoever is responsible but in the meantime we’re asking people to remain patient. Level crossings are safety critical so our major concern is the risk to life this presents if people start to become complacent around level crossings and try to ignore the barrier arms and bells.

“We understand how frustrating it is but please don’t put your lives at risk - the safest thing for drivers to do is to use an alternative route.”

The damage caused by the vandalism often affects multiple level crossings at a time and in each case KiwiRail staff need to be called out to site to fix the fault, which can take up to an hour or more.

Ends

Issued by KiwiRail

Media contact: Ruth Larsen, 04 498 3383 / 021 804 906

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